Improvement in reaping and mowing machines



PATENT EErcE.

HENRY WATERMAN, OF WILLIAMSBURG, NEW YORK.

./IMPROVEIVIENT lN REAPING AND IVIOWING MACHINES.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent No. 13,5l2, dated August 28, 1855.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY WATERMAN, of

Williamsburg, in the county of Kings and State` of New York, have invented an Improvement in Machines for Reaping and Mowing; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description ofthe principle or character which distinguishes it from all other things before known, and of the usual manner of making, modifying, and using the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 represents a section taken vertically through the center of the machine. Fig. 2 is a plan of the machine.. Fig. 3 is one of the fingers, showing the knife in section. Fig. 4 is a detached view of the flexible deector.

My invention consists in certain improvements in machines for reaping and mowing, whereby the cutting is facilitated and clogging prevented and the grain collected and deposited in proper quantities at suitable intervals and in its proper position on the iield.

The difficulty of cutting wet grass by mowing-machines is well known, and it arises not only from the difficulty of making the cut, but from the .gumming and clogging of the knives. To obviate these difficulties I give an advancing and retreating curvilinear motion to the knives as follows: The cutter-bar is connected at each end by pivot-joints to the arms a a, which vibrate about the fixed centers b-b.. The end c of the cutter-bar is attached by a pivot-j oint to the connecting-rod d, which takes hold ofthe bell-crank e upon the pinion-shaft f, which last receives its motion from the main driving-wheel g, through the medium of the inner gear, h, pinion t, and bevel-gear k k. From this mode of attaching and operating the cutter-bar it will be seen thatit, with its knives, has an advancing and retreating curvilinear motion, which secures the advantage ofa dra-wcut,77 and is the motion best suited to clear the spacesbetweentheknivesandthefingers. The range of motion being greater than in the straight reciprocating cut, I adapt the cutting and cleaning edges of the knives to their proper action by using two sets of knives or cuttingedges-viz., the projecting knives b b and the intermediate knives or edges, a a. Both these knives perform the offices ot' cutting and cleaning, and while the cut is effected with more ease than with the usual rectilinear motion of the cutter-bar the cleaning is effected in a very perfect manner.

The knives may be made in any of the wellknown forms not inconsistent with my peculiar action, and the fingers m m, &c., I make elastic instead of making them firm and un- A yielding, as they are usually from being made of cast-iron. A twofold purpose is thus accomplishcd by the elastic fingers-viz., when sticks or any obstructing material 'get between the fingers and knives the spring of the fingers admits of their being easily dragged out by the retreating motion of the knife.

For the purpose of collecting and 'depositing the grain I have contrived a gathering-reel of peculiar operation. This reel, revolving upon the axis n, is composed of four or more cradles, p ppp, having curved ends or fingers o o 0 o on their ends nearest the standing grain. At the end of the reel next the drivers seat there is upon its axis n a countwheel, 1^, provided upon its periphery with four holes, s, or as' many holes as there may be reels. These holes receive in succession, as the reel revolves, the check-pin t, which is on the spring a, the other end of the spring being fast to the reel-beam fw. The check-pin is controlled by the driver through the count-rod z. This rod, provided with a suitable knob or cap-piece, c', plays freely up and down in suitable apertures in the reel-beam and the projecting piecef, attached to the upright g. There is a nut, h', upon the count-roll, and one side of this nut rests upon the spring, so that when the driver presses down knob c the spring is depressed and the check-pin is carried out of an aperture in the count-wheel and the further depression of the spring checked by the stop-bolt m, attached to the reel-beam. As the reel revolves the pressure of the spring against the periphery ofthe count-Wheel carries the check-pin into the succeeding aperture. The reel revolves by the weight ofthe grain resting upon the lower cradle. During the operation of the machine the grain accumulates upon the lowerinost cradle of the reel, and when a sufficient gavel is attained the driver depresses the check-pin, the weight ofthe gavel causes the reel to make a quarter 0f a revolution, and the gave] drops upon the field.

It is obvious that the stopping of the reel may be effected by mechanical means without changing the operation of the reel, ralthough I prefer the present mode. As the grain is laid across the swath it is turned so as to lie in the direction ofthe swath, and be out of the Way of the horses at the next cut, by means of a deiector of a peculiar description. This detlector y is attached to the rear end of the 1 guard or side board, and is made of a iexible strip, c,'of metal or other suitable material7 and a deiiecting side, b. This side is composed ot' sections c c', &c., attached by their lower edges to the strip a', and having their vertical edges overlapping each other and free, so as to admit of the iexure of the strip c as it passes over irregularities and obstructions upon the surface ofthe field.

l do not claim the advancing.;` and retreating curvilinear motion ofthe cutter-bar; but

HENRY WATERMAN. Vitnesses:

T. CAMPBELL, R. G. CAMPBELL. 

